As the San Benito County Elections Office begins the final
canvassing of Tuesday’s votes, the close race for the San Benito
County District 5 Supervisor seat still hangs in the balance.
As the San Benito County Elections Office begins the final canvassing of Tuesday’s votes, the close race for the San Benito County District 5 Supervisor seat still hangs in the balance.
District 5’s unofficial winner, incumbent Bob Cruz, defeated candidate Jaime De La Cruz by a 25-vote margin.
With more than 800 absentee ballots received the day of the election that still need to be counted, the results of a close race such as theirs could be altered, said County Clerk John Hodges.
The office won’t know how many of the absentee ballots are in District 5 until Monday.
“Until everything’s all counted and accounted for, things could change,” Hodges said. “We’re going to be very careful and be able to account for every ballot cast.”
The canvassing process is a checks and balance-type system of every polling place to essentially inventory the vote, which will be complete in about two weeks, Hodges said.
Races where there was a large spread won’t be affected by the canvassing, but with close races like District 5 the Elections Office will check and double check, he said.
While he conceded that the race’s outcome could change within the next two weeks, Cruz isn’t worried one way or the other, he said.
“No matter what happens I’ll be there until January, unless they decide to recall me between now and then,” he said. “I’ll still be around – I’m not going to wait.”
Jaime De La Cruz is hopeful that enough of the absentee votes will put him over the top, but admits that it can be difficult to catch up.
After checking the absentee ballot list the Elections Office compiles, he discovered some of the ballots he knew were sent in that were in his favor were never received, he said.
“Two of them I mailed myself. I checked specifically and they were never received,” he said. “I’m going to try to get ahold of the monitors from the federal government, because it seems like the (channels) from the voters to the Elections Office is questionable,” De La Cruz said.
He plans on setting up a meeting with the federal elections officials as soon as possible to look into the missing ballots, he said.
“Once the results are verified it’s a done deal,” he said. “I want to figure out what’s going on.”
Out of the three supervisory races, the close District 5 vote surprised District 4 Supervisor Reb Monaco the most.
“I would have expected the incumbent to have a little bigger edge,” Monaco said.
The waiting game to see which one makes the final cut will be “interesting,” said District 3 Supervisor Pat Loe.
Both supervisors realize the effect the newly elected supervisors will bring to the Board – conceding that any time new people, ideas and opinions are introduced it will have a definite impact.
“I’m pleased with (the election) generally. I think the Supervisors will be a good, strong Board in the future,” Monaco said. “I’ve always been a believer in the democratic process, and the voters have spoken and that’s what they want.”
The voter’s choice, which landed District 1 candidate Don Marcus a seat on the Board by winning the majority vote, was nothing short of amazing, said defeated District 1 candidate Marci Huston.
“As a family we tried hard, met a whole bunch of people, and something good will happen because of it,” Huston said. “This was just a project that didn’t work out. We’ve already talked about it – we’re not losers, we’re not beaten.”
The loss of the election does not mean an end to Huston’s aspirations to public office or her involvement in the community, she said.
She has already been asked to participate in two different things, but has made no commitments yet, she said.
“I’m not a quitter,” she said. “We’ll definitely do something again. It was too much fun.”
